It was 43 years ago today (December 6th, 1969) that the Rolling Stones held their ill-fated free concert at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California. The bill, which also included Santana, the Jefferson Airplane, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, is mainly remembered for the violence instigated by the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang, whom the Stones had hired as security -- and the murder of concert-goer Meredith Hunter by Hell's Angel Alan Passaro. Passaro was later acquitted of the stabbing after claiming he acted in self-defense.

Portions of the Stones' 1969 tour and the Altamont concert were filmed by filmmakers Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, assisted by George Lucas. The film, featuring portions of both the Stones' November Madison Square Garden concerts and the Altamont concert, was released in 1970 as Gimme Shelter.

At the New York City press conference at the start of the tour, Mick Jagger said he thought that the free Northern California concert would follow in the footsteps of the Woodstock festival, in terms of how people would get along: (Mick Jagger): "We are doing a free concert in San Francisco. . . " (Reporter): "When?" Mick Jagger:"December 6th -- and the location is not Golden Gate Park, unfortunately, but it someplace adjacent to it which is a bit larger. . . It's creating a sort of a microcosmic society, y'know, which, it sets an example to the rest of America as to how one can behave in large gatherings."

Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen (pronounced: YOR-ma COW-co-nen) said that his only thought was to keep playing after he saw lead singer Marty Balin get punched in the face by one of the Hell's Angels: "I remember thinking that -- of course, if you look at the footage, Jack (Casady) and Spencer (Dryden) and I pretty much keep on playing -- I remember thinking at the time, 'I'm just gonna keep playing and see what happens.'"

The show's low standing stage eventually became overcrowded with fans and Angels alike. The Stones' tour manager Sam Cutler pleaded with the people to give the musicians room to play: "There are a number of people on and around this stage who should not be here. Consequently. . . consequently the musicians on this stage are playing with something like 200 people breathing down their necks. Now can I please ask that everyone leaves the stage, and as I say we'll go back to playing music and nothing else."

Both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards sought to get the crowd in line so that the Stones could play their set: "(Mick Jagger): People, who's fighting and what for?! Why are we fighting?! Why are we fighting?! We don't want to fight! Come on! Who wants to fight? (crowd noise) Every other scene has been cool. . ." (Keith Richards): "Look, cat. . . That guy there, if he doesn't stop it man! Listen man, either those cats cool it, or we don't play!" (crowd noise). (Hell's Angel): "Hey, if y'don't cool it, y'ain't gonna hear no music! Now y'all wanna go home or what?!" (Crowd noise) (Announcer): "We need doctors down here now please. Can we have a doctor now to the front?" (Crowd noise) )

Although the Grateful Dead were scheduled to play, they refused to take the stage in the middle of what was obviously a very ugly situation unfolding. Drummer Bill Kreutzmann says that the scene at Altamont was as tragic in real life as it appears in the Gimme Shelter footage: "Yeah, it was horrible. It was a war. It felt really uncomfortable. It was a dark day. It was so dark that that night, we were playing that weekend for Bill Graham at the Carousel, and I refused to play that night, I was feeling so bad about what had happened that day. I didn't feel like going and celebrating it musically."

Although only a handful of songs from the concert were shown in Gimme Shelter -- giving the appearance that the show was cut short due to the unruly crowd and violence -- the band actually performed a full 15-song set.

Out now is Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert 40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set. The set features three CD's and one DVD, with the first disc including the full 1970 Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out album, and the second disc including five additional cuts left off the original set. The third disc features performances from Ike & Tina Turner and B.B. King who served as the Stones' opening acts on November 27th and 28th, 1969 at New York's Madison Square Garden.